I wrote the family info for the handout at the funeral:
Nancy Joy Jensen Riding
Born August 20, 1951 Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Death November 5, 2014 Provo, Utah, USA
Daughter of Edward Quinn and Joyce Lucille Spackman Jensen
Step-Daughter of Afton Graham Jensen
Married May 12, 1972 to Reed Heaps Riding
Children
Teri Riding McCabe married to David McCabe
Corey Riding married to Sara Caldon Riding
Grandchildren
Camion, Brylee, and Adison Riding
Brothers and Sisters
Geoffrey and Linda Jones Jensen
Philip and Kathleen Kershaw Jensen
Sally Jensen and Alan Earl Merryweather
Shelley Graham Brown
Vern Weston and Gaylyn Pemberton Graham
Pallbearers
Corey Riding
Alan Merryweather
Christopher Jensen
Lance Jensen
Dallas Jensen
Jordan Jensen
David Riding
Christopher Riding
Karl Riding
Brandon Quinton
Ben Southwick
Brock Kassing
Travis Romney
Conner Huffaker
Honorary Pallbearer
Caimon Riding
This was the schedule for the funeral:
Family Prayer David McCabe
Chorister Autumn Jensen Southwick
Pianist Brittney Merryweather Romney
Conducting & Presiding Bishop Eric Wing
Opening Hymn 98 I Need Thee Every Hour
Opening Prayer Ruth Kilton
Talk Geoffrey Jensen
Talk Corey Riding and Teri Riding McCabe
Remarks Bishop Eric Wing
Closing Hymn 152 God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again
Closing Prayer Sara Riding
Dedicatory Prayer at the Cemetery Philip Jensen
Uncle Geoff wrote a great talk about my Mom. Then Corey and I spoke together about our favorite things about my Mom:
I didn’t realize how much she emphasized
education until Caimon was old enough for her to play on Starfall with him. If
I needed a word spelled I always asked her. She would read all my papers until
my PhD, then she couldn’t understand what I was saying.
Mom, our neighbor Kandis, and I go watch click
flicks together.
Mom would buy 2 new games for Christmas and we would
play them the whole holiday season.
She has super powers. She could get you to do
what she wanted you to do without you knowing. When I was a Freshman at Snow
College, she got me to break up with my boyfriend. I didn’t even realize it
until afterward. But she always used her super powers for good.
She was very supportive of every crazy thing I
wanted to do, for example, going to England for my PhD. She even helped me move
to Texas and Las Vegas.
When I was in high school, Mom would schedule
her classes around my soccer games. She finally graduated with her BA in Family
History in August 1994.
When I
left the South Africa Cape Town Mission in 1997, I met Mom in London, then we
traveled up to Preston so she could do some genealogy on the Rogerson line. She
had been researching those ancestors for about 40 years.
She had a
phrase she would say to me; “The best kind of Mom is a returned missionary,
college educated kind of Mom” She didn’t quit saying that until after I was an
RM and graduated from BYU.
Mom paid
for everyone’s first passport. She gave Corey and I our application in our
Christmas sock the Christmas before we left on mission. She paid for Caimon and
Brylee’s before we went to Waterton in 2009. And in August she paid for
Adison’s because she wanted to take her and Dave (because they are the only
ones that have not been) to Waterton.
Back in
May, Dave and I went through our first IVF cycle. After a week of injecting
myself with estrogen I couldn’t do it anymore. Dave would do the morning
injections and Mom would do the evenings. I knew it was hard for her to watch
us have to go through this, but she was brave to stab me with a needle anyway.
Mom knew
how to play the piano, but she threatened us when we moved to Provo to not tell
anyone. Mom sang Corey and I to sleep when we were young. One time in Idaho,
Caimon and Brylee would not calm down with the songs I would sing with them, so
we went downstairs and Mom told them the story of their birth. It totally
worked.
She loved
being the Family History consultant/teacher in the ward. I loved it when she
came home and would tell the fun stories about everyone’s ancestors. She just
started a new class last week.
She loved
talking on Skype with the kids. Thank Heavens for Skype or I would never have
survived England without talking to her a few times a week. She burned dinner
the night she died because talking with the kids was more important to her.
Mom was a
good listener. We would have lunch about once a week when I was in grad school.
When I was working at Tooele High School and living in West Jordan, I would
call Mom to stay awake while driving home and tell her all about my day.
Mom read
books all the time. She always had a pile of books on her night stand.
Dave—loved how much she welcomed him when we moved in with them and her help with his genealogy.
Sara—loved
my Mom’s honesty. She told about Corey’s tickle spot.
Adison—loved
playing with Grandma on the kindle.
Brylee—loved Grandma's hugs
Caimon—loved playing on the computer together
When
Corey and I were 8 she gave us journals to write in. She knew from Family
History that journals are a good resource for information. She wrote in her
journal about all of you as well. In one entry she wrote the details of Travis’
accident which was the same week that Drew was born. She didn’t just love and
care about us, but all of you as well.
Pictures from the Funeral and Viewing
My Mom's siblings and cousins. Some even came from Canada for the funeral.
We had a couple of tables that displayed our favorite pictures of my Mom at the Viewing and Funeral. This is what I wrote on facebook a week after the funeral: "Last Sunday was my Mom's viewing. We found some great pictures from her life. Hopefully you found yourself in some of those pictures. She will be missed by her family and friends, many whom she helped with their family history, and those who were recipients of her kindness. However, I know my Grandparents are happy to be with her again and our Rogerson ancestors can now thank her in person for the 40+ years of research she did for them."
People brought some beautiful flowers!
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